They Said It Couldn’t Be Done!

For those of you on extended summer vacation last year, perhaps a short review is in order. On August 22^nd, 2000 an intrepid group of adventurers accepted the First Symbolic Barrel of Caspian Crude from H.E. Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, blasting out of Baku aboard a dozen URAL side-car motorcycles down the proposed  2,000 kilometer Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Ten days later, after traversing desert, river and mountain, the epic trip known as OIL ODYSSEY 2000 arrived at Ceyhan, Turkey.

     And now we are dropping the clutch again, although with far better organization and lead time than last year’s somewhat and sometimes….err…chaotic ride. Some things, however, will remain the same. Like last year’s journey, Oil Odyssey 2001 will launch in late August from Baku, timed to camp at the fabulous Vardzia monastery in western Georgia on August 28^th—the Feast Day of the Virgin Mary according to the Orthodox Rite. The next date of significance is August 30^th—Victory Day in Turkey, when we should be in either Erzurum or Sivas. The expected arrival in Ceyhan is September 2^nd.